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Dawn of the Planet of the Apesscored a muscular $27.7 million opening day, including $4.1m in Thursday previews. The 20th Century Fox (a division of 21st Century Fox, Inc.) sequel, which cost $170m to produce, opened well above the $19.5m (and $1.3m in midnight previews) scored by Rise of the Planet of the Apes in August 2011. While some of the bump can be attributed to the sequel going 3D (Rise was straight 2D), this is still a case of a sequel breaking out. Rise of the Planet of the Apes had a strong 2.8x weekend multiplier, leading to a $54.8m weekend. A similar result would give Dawn $77m. Obviously it's a sequel, but even a more frontloaded 2.52x weekend would give the critically-acclaimed sci-fi spectacle $70m for the weekend.

That would give Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, which features Andy Serkis and Gary Oldman in a saga taking place ten years after humanity has been mostly wiped out,a 29% bump from the opening weekend of Rise of the Planet of the Apes, which would put in on similar turf as Iron Man 2 (25%), Thor: The Dark World(32%). Obviously this isn't a Bourne Surpemacy-style jump (86% between installments), but it's a higher boost than How to Train Your Dragon 2(14%). Again, the 2D-to-3D explains some of the bounce, but thus far this is somewhat capitalizing on the positive buzz and slow-build success of Rise of the Planet of the Apes three years ago. That film earned $176m domestic and $481m worldwide. Barring a complete collapse (unlikely with the strong word-of-mouth and relatively light July slate), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes should cross $200m domestic. It opens in 28 markets overseas this weekend and more after the World Cup ends.

The only issue thus far is that the World Cup final will fall on Sunday, potentially hurting the film's multiplier and overall weekend take. But for now, Apes strong. The picture had a strong marketing campaign, going what seems to be the standard Fox route of revealing only a little until close to the end when you reveal a bit too much (I didn't watch the final trailer until after I had seen the film). The Apes franchise has always been a popular one, be it the original five-film series starting in 1968 to Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake back in 2001. Yes, said film was pretty bad, but it scored the second-biggest opening weekend of all-time back then with $69m. The series has always been a useful vessel for political/social commentary, even if said topicality is now status quo for most big-scale blockbusters. A third Planet of the Apes film is already slotted for July of 2016, and a rock-solid debut such as this one shows why it was the right call.

In limited release news, Richard Linklater's Boyhood debuted on five screens this weekend. The "shot over twelve years chronicling a single child growing up" drama earned around $100,000 yesterday, setting the stage for a $325k weekend and a dynamite $65k per-screen average. The IFC film will allegedly expand next weekend. The rest is holdover news. Tammy earned another $4.1m as the Melissa McCarthy comedy dropped just 37% from last Friday. The $20m New Line/Warner Bros. (a division of Time Warner, Inc.) comedy, written off as a flop, has already grossed $48m and will cross $55m by tomorrow. Paramount's Transformers: Age of Extinction earned $4.83m (-56%). It should earn around $15m for the weekend (-63%) and cross $200m today.

DreamWorks Animation's How To Train Your Dragon 2 earned another $1.75 million on its fifth Friday (-35%), bringing what is still the summer's best "big" movie up to $147m. The film will cross $150m tomorrow, finally showing something resembling legs just before Walt Disney'sPlanes: Fire and Rescue comes to extinguish it next weekend. On the plus side, it's crossed $312m worldwide. Sony's 22 Jump Street earned another $2m on its fifth Friday, setting the stage for a $6m weekend (-44%) and a new $171m domestic cume. It probably won't cross $200m domestic, but it will triple its $57m opening weekend. Relativity's Earth To Echo earned $1.74m on its second Friday (-36%), crossing the $20m mark and setting the stage for a $5.7m second weekend and a $24m domestic cume for the $13m kids-centric adventure.

Deliver Us From Evil earned $1.57m (-43%), which isn't a bad drop for a horror title. The supernatural police procedural should score $4.8m for the weekend and bring its domestic cume to $25m, with its utter devastation coming next weekend at the hands of The Purge: Anarchy. Walt Disney's Maleficent earned $1.24m on Friday (-32%). The Angelina Jolie fantasy is on track for a $3.7m weekend and a new domestic cume of $221m. At this rate, it will catch up to X-Men: Days of Future Past($228m) domestically. The Mark Ruffalo/Keira Knightley musical romance Begin Again expanded to 932 theaters this weekend and (after a $824k Friday) should earn just under $3m and thus cross $5m for its trouble. Think Like A Man Too earned another $760k yesterday, with a likely weekend total of $2.3m and a new domestic cume of $61m for the $24m comedy sequel.

That's it for today. Join us tomorrow for the weekend estimates and more holdover news.